More MMA Interviewed Patriot Boxing's Dan Ortiz to discuss his upcoming lightweight title shot at Invasion 3

September 26th, 2011

 

Cut Throat MMA's Invasion 3 will be held on October 7th, 2011 at La Sierra,2121 E New York St., in Aurora, IL. This will be one of the best shows of the year featuring three championship bouts. Not many organizations offer this many title fights on one night and I consider this a must see card!

 

The lightweight title will be on the line as challenger Dan Ortiz takes on champion Eric Rasmussen. Ortiz is coming off his quick submission victory over Chad Fredericksen. Eric Rasmussen looks to defend his title for the first time, after knocking out Rich Molina to capture the belt. Both of these fighters have outstanding standup and it will be interesting to see if Ortiz will try to keep it standing or try to take him down, like he did to Fredericksen in his last fight. This fight has the potential for fight of the night and I doubt that it will go to the judges. I had the chance to speak to Dan Ortiz to get his thoughts on this fight.

How did you get your start in Martial Arts?

After high school, Ufc was getting popular and I decided to take up kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu at Grace Barra just to get in shape and to learn how to protect myself for self defense. Shortly after, I started boxing with Fres Oquendo at the Olympian Center in Lombard, and just fell in love with boxing. I started participating in the Golden Gloves and transitioned to MMA.

 

Did you have success in the Golden Gloves?

I made it to the finals in Golden Gloves and lost a decision the first time. The second time I made it to the semifinals and it was a great experience for me.

 

So what led to the transition from Boxing to MMA?

When I was boxing I still did wrestling, kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu. My trainer wanted me to do the Golden Gloves so I stuck with boxing, but the losses that came to me were real close and I'm kind of a sore loser, I hate losing. At the time my MMA coach was Gabe Salinas, he wanted me to fight MMA, he was telling me how good I was and that I was one of his better training partners. After watching my teammates fight that I used to kind of beat up on at the gym because I was doing it for such a long time, a lot longer than them, I decided to take up MMA and so far it's went pretty well for me.

 

Where do you currently train?

I train at Patriot Boxing with Nick Janowitz in Elmhurst. Nick is a really good wrestling coach and Scott and Otto teach standup. Every once in a while I roll around with Gabe, he has his own gym and is busy doing his own thing but I try to get in as much as I can with him.

 

What is your favorite discipline?

I would say Boxing, I've always like standup, definitely stand up.

 

What is your favorite part of training?

Testing myself is what I love about training and fighting in itself. I want to prove to myself that I'm that good and I train really hard to win fights. I don't like taking scrub fights if you will. If you see everyone that I have fought have been pretty talented and had good records. I train way too hard to fight scrubs, I want to test myself every time I go in there and it's a good way to test myself against Rasmussen, he is a really tough fighter.

 

What do you find the most challenging about training?

Just the commitment every day, I'm 22 years old. I still like to go out, party with my friends and eat like crap. The everyday commitment of training every day, six days a week sometimes twice a day can really get to you sometimes. Sometimes you just want to go out and not worry about training so I would say the commitment is the hardest thing.

When I know I have a fight coming up and it's set, that's when I turn it up and start training really hard. It gets me really motivated, especially with a tough opponent I can really wake myself up and go to the gym in the morning and at night, eat healthy. It's all worth it, so fights get me really motivated, especially when It's for a belt.

 

What are your thoughts about facing Rasmussen?

The thing I like about Rasmussen is, I'm a fan, how can you not be. Every time he comes to fight, he's puts it all out there and puts on a show for the fans. I like those kind of fighters and I like those type of match ups for me because I'm the type of guy who likes finishing fights. I don't like going in there and winning by decision, I like finishing fights. That's why I think the fight with Rasmussen is going to be a war, we are just going to bring it in there and see who wins.

 

Have you modified your training for Rasmussen?

To be honest, no, not really, with training camps I usually train everything, all the disciplines. Obviously depending who you are fighting you want to develop a game plan but I wouldn't say I've changed too much for Rasmussen.

 

What are your thoughts on fighting for the Cutthroat Championship?

I feel honored, especially because my close friend Gabe held the Cutthroat Heavyweight title for awhile and look where he is now, he is a Strikeforce fighter. Look at Mike Russow and all the guys that have won Cutthroat belts, it's quite an honor. With Cutthroat being such a good promotion, it's a big honor to get to fight for the title.

 

What can the fans expect to see when you enter the cage and fight for the Cutthroat Championship?

They should be able see a very talented fighter in Dan Ortiz, he's going to come out and bring it to Rasmussen, we are going to stand up, wrestle and we are going to do Jiu-Jitsu. It's going to be a great mixed martial arts fight instead of a one way wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu match. We are going to put on a great show for the fans. I want to thank my fans and everyone at Patriot for getting me ready for this fight.